


Back to the Future

by lionwolves



Category: Back to the Future (1985), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Friends to Lovers, M/M, MIT Era, Pre-Relationship, Teen Tony and Rhodey, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-30 12:42:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20097400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionwolves/pseuds/lionwolves
Summary: Tony Stark invents a time machine in the form of a DeLorean at the age of sixteen with the help of his best friend, Rhodey.





	Back to the Future

Rhodey holds on tight to the roof handle on the passenger side of the vehicle as Tony accelerates to a speed close to 90 miles per hour. 

Before he knew it, they, along with the car, were transported to another location entirely and Tony had brought the car to a halt in the middle of a deserted road.

Tony exits the car in a hurry and Rhodey decides, reluctantly, to follow him.

“Where the hell are we, Tony?”

“The correct question would be ‘when the hell are we?’” Tony responds with a mischievous smirk.

Rhodey regards him for a moment. “Did you do it?”

“I don’t know. Let’s see.”

Tony waits for a moment before he flags down a car that passes by them on the road. 

A older man rolls down the window. “You two kids lost?”

“Sir, what year is it?” Tony asks. 

“What year is it? It’s 2015. What kind of drugs are you kids on?”

Rhodey watches as Tony’s face stretches into a wide smile upon hearing that they had successfully traveled from the 1980s to the 21st century. 

Tony can hardly contain his excitement enough to avoid alarming the man. “Thank you, sir!”

The man shakes his head, rolls up his window, and drives off.

“You did it, Tones!” Rhodey says excitedly.

Tony practically launches himself into Rhodey’s arms for a celebratory hug.

“Come on... let’s go explore 2015,” Tony says once he pulls away.

“Alright, but not too much. Wouldn’t want to step on any butterflies,” Rhodey jokingly warns as they re-enter the car.

To their dismay, however, the car refuses to start even after multiple attempts.

“Damnit,” Tony mumbles, refusing to meet Rhodey’s eye as he realizes his mistake. 

Rhodey sighs deeply. “Don’t tell me. We’re stuck... in the future.” 

***

It all started when the 16 year old genius, Tony Stark himself, endeavored to create a time machine.

It wasn’t even the least bit surprising to Rhodey that his best friend would try to push the boundaries with a new invention and he always managed to be successful, but he had never expected him to attempt to invent time travel. 

As per routine, Rhodey walks over to Tony’s house and finds him in his garage, where the two of them often work on a number of projects. 

“Tony?” Rhodey calls out when he does not see Tony immediately upon entering the garage.

Tony slides out from under the Delorean that Rhodey had not seen before and stands up.

“Hey,” Tony greets him as he walks over, practically covered in grease from head to toe.

Rhodey runs his finger across a line of grease streaked on Tony’s cheek. 

“Hey, grease monkey. What are you doing with this Delorean? Replacing the engine?”

“Something like that,” Tony says with a smirk. 

“What, then?”

“I’m building a time machine,” Tony responds casually, though expectant of Rhodey’s reaction to it.

“A what?!” Rhodey exclaims in pure shock.

Tony takes that shock as a positive sign. “I know, right?!”

Rhodey shakes his head. “No, Tony. That’s... you can’t build a time machine. I mean, if anyone could do it, it’d be you, but time travel is impossible.”

“I’m telling you it’s not!” Tony responds. “Last night, I had this crazy dream... and I saw it... and I couldn’t go back to sleep until I built it.”

“You’ve been up all night?” Rhodey asks, clearly concerned.

Tony huffs in frustration before he takes Rhodey’s hand and pulls him over to the Delorean. He opens the door and points at a small machine towards the center of the backseat of the car.

“This is the arc reactor. This is what makes time travel possible, Rhodey,” Tony says. 

Rhodey peers at the arc reactor for a moment. “That’s amazing, Tony, but how do you know?” 

“I don’t. Not yet,” Tony answers. “But I still need your help with some other parts.” 

“Well, let’s get to it!”

***

Tony and Rhodey spend the rest of the day and early evening working on the Delorean.

It is Rhodey that suggests that they stop once Tony nearly hurts himself due to exhaustion.

“Alright,” Tony concedes, setting down a wrench. “But you really should stay for dinner and sleepover and then we can get up early and work on it some more.”

Everytime Tony asks Rhodey to stay over, Tony’s deep brown, puppy dog eyes make it nearly impossible for Rhodey to decline. 

“Okay. I just have to call my mom to ask.”

“Rhodey...”

Rhodey turns back to him. “Yeah?”

“We can’t tell my dad what we’re doing. With the arc reactor. He can’t know. I know he’d take it and I don’t know what he’d do with it, but it won’t be good,” Tony explains, nervously. “He just can’t know.”

Rhodey nods in understanding. “I understand, Tones. If he asks, we were just working on restoring an old car, that’s all.” 

***

At dinner, Howard does not inquire about their project and Rhodey knows that Tony is somewhat disappointed. 

Even though he had prepared a lie, he wants his father to at least show interest in him and whatever he is working on, but he hardly ever does. 

Tony excuses himself early from dinner and Rhodey follows him to his room.

Rhodey presses a button that reveals the neatly concealed pullout bed that Tony created for whenever he sleeps over.

Tony takes out thick blankets and far too many spare pillows and tosses it over to him before he lays back onto his own bed. 

“Rhodey?”

Rhodey hums in response as he places the pillows and blankets on his bed. 

“Can you imagine what’ll happen once we finish it? What we can do? Where we can go?”

Rhodey smiles to himself at Tony’s innocent and imaginative excitement. “Yeah, Tones. It’ll be pretty awesome.”

“We can go to the future... or the past.” 

They continue discussing the range of possibilities that this time machine would allow until late into the night.

Tony drifts off to asleep and dreams of time travel, and _ of Rhodey. _

**Author's Note:**

> I hope y’all enjoyed this. Back to the Future is my favorite movie of all time and one day I had the idea of Tony inventing a time machine like Doc Brown did, and Rhodey, of course, being right there with him.


End file.
